1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, or a combination thereof (e.g. MFP), and a toner container removably installed in the image forming apparatus body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a technique has been known in which a toner container (toner cartridge) having a new toner stored therein is configured so as to be removable from an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine or a printer, and the toner container is also used as a waste toner collecting container for collecting a waste toner (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-42717 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-96810).
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-42717 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-96810, a toner container (toner cartridge) includes a new toner storage unit for storing a new toner and a waste toner collecting unit for storing a collected waste toner. In addition, the toner storage unit and the waste toner collecting unit are partitioned by a flexible partition member to prevent the mixture between a new toner and a waste toner during the use of the toner container in the image forming apparatus.
In the toner container disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-42717 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-96810, a space (waste toner collecting unit) for collecting the waste toner is provided separately from a space (new toner storage unit) for storing the new toner, in advance. Therefore, the waste toner collecting unit increases the whole size of the toner container in comparison with a toner container for storing only the new toner without collecting the waste toner. In addition, the most part of the inner space of the toner container becomes empty after all the new toner is exhausted or consumed. Thus, the space is not used effectively.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a toner container and an image forming apparatus, capable of utilizing the space effectively. This invention has been made in view of the above problems.